99.93%

If Kimi Raikkonen had not gone the wrong way up a one way street in Brazil yesterday, he probably wouldn't have been lapped. But he did and he was.

What a pity - it meant that rather than complete 100% of the total number of kilometers run in this 20 race season, he completed 99.93%. This was the only lap he lost in the whole season. Not bad, is it.

In 2008 Nick Heidfeld also finished in all the races but he was a total of 5 laps adrift of 100%.

Not one season, but this reminds me of Ted Horn's finishing record in nine consecutive Indy 500s: if not for a red flag one year, when the race finished in rain, he would (could?) have completed all 1,800 laps, or 4,500 miles, or 7,242 kilometers. Instead, he completed 99.94 %!

Not one season, but this reminds me of Ted Horn's finishing record in nine consecutive Indy 500s: if not for a red flag one year, when the race finished in rain, he would (could?) have completed all 1,800 laps, or 4,500 miles, or 7,242 kilometers. Instead, he completed 99.94 %!

No, he wasn't. That trumps Kimi. But I cite the superiority of the 2002 Ferrari to make Raikkonen's achievement all the more worthy as the Lotus was hardly on a par with R.B. and Mac or indeed, Ferrari, at most races.

If Kimi Raikkonen had not gone the wrong way up a one way street in Brazil yesterday, he probably wouldn't have been lapped. But he did and he was.

What a pity - it meant that rather than complete 100% of the total number of kilometers run in this 20 race season, he completed 99.93%. This was the only lap he lost in the whole season. Not bad, is it.

In 2008 Nick Heidfeld also finished in all the races but he was a total of 5 laps adrift of 100%.

Barry and EB pointing out the reliability of the competitive Raikkonen/Lotus and Schumacher/Ferrari pairings reminded me how different things were, and not so long ago. Drifting slightly OT, in the 1970s at least three seasons featured wins by drivers who otherwise failed to score a single point in those individual years, in part because of their cars' dreadful reliability - anyone remember?
I know Baghetti scored just nine points in 1961 (from only three starts) and, in obviously different and sad circumstances, so did Jim Clark in 1968. Perhaps there are more. In 2012 Maldonado could be considered the most unlikely winner, but even he had several other finishes, some in the points. I don't know about nostalgia but unreliability certainly aint what it used to be.

I know Baghetti scored just nine points in 1961 (from only three starts) and, in obviously different and sad circumstances, so did Jim Clark in 1968. Perhaps there are more.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille springs to mind here. In an F1 career of 49 GP starts he scored points just three times - a 4th in 1978, a win in 1979 and a win in 1980. Peter Gethin also - a 6th a 1st and a 6th, all in different years.

I loved seeing someone start 15th and get in the points without necessarily overtaking anyone.

Completely agree. The impressive engineering reliability removes some of the fun. I wonder how the technical regs could be tweaked to include a little more (safe) unreliability. Electronically activated oil leaks perhaps? I miss that haze of tell-tale blue smoke which provided several laps of...'is that oil leaking from Ickx's Ferrari?'.....'must be, look, the nose of Stewart's Tyrrell is turning black'...'it's OK, the smoke has stopped'....bang!

Jean-Pierre Jabouille springs to mind here. In an F1 career of 49 GP starts he scored points just three times - a 4th in 1978, a win in 1979 and a win in 1980. Peter Gethin also - a 6th a 1st and a 6th, all in different years.

You're right Tim, Jabouille and Gethin were two of the three I had in mind. I would guess that JPJ's finishing record, for a 'front runner', must be one of the very worst, but not unexpected given the test-bed nature of Renault's turbo project 1977-1980. I had forgotten that he had two seasons with a win and nothing else.

There are still old anoraks who actually enjoy modern Formula 1 racing.

Mine was strictly a tongue in cheek comment Barry and I admire your interest in modern Formula 1. I still watch it too, though I dont actually enjoy it very often!. I dont relate to the cars, circuits or some of the countries that stage races these days, but having been bitten by the motor racing bug in 1950 I find it hard to switch off, and as long as Ferrari and drivers like Alonso are involved and there is still an Italian Grand Prix at Monza there seems to be little chance of that changing,

But surely you must have found a large number of this season's races enthralling?

The strange thing is Barry, that while I can still remember individual races from the 1950's, todays events all seem to blend into one. Maybe because there are just so many of them!. I cant honestly say that I have been enthralled exactly, though I must say that Fernando Alonso's driving in the last few races has been both impressive and heart warming. That 1956 Italian Grand Prix was a belter though wasnt it?!.

The strange thing is Barry, that while I can still remember individual races from the 1950's, todays events all seem to blend into one. Maybe because there are just so many of them!. I cant honestly say that I have been enthralled exactly, though I must say that Fernando Alonso's driving in the last few races has been both impressive and heart warming. That 1956 Italian Grand Prix was a belter though wasnt it?!.

I have an idea to help out F1 fans & reduce costs at the same time.

Why not run all 20 races consecutively, at the same venue & get it all over at once, instead of waiting around for 8 months to get the result.

We could run this event somewhere convenient - central France - in the month of June for example, over a whole day & night & allow driver changes to keep things going.

The strange thing is Barry, that while I can still remember individual races from the 1950's, todays events all seem to blend into one. Maybe because there are just so many of them!. I cant honestly say that I have been enthralled exactly, though I must say that Fernando Alonso's driving in the last few races has been both impressive and heart warming. That 1956 Italian Grand Prix was a belter though wasnt it?!.

You and I are kindred spirits. I can't stop watching because I would feel that I was letting the side down, but I often fall asleep. I agree that the uniformity, nay generic , form of the racing today means nothing seems to stand out during a season. Having said that, I admire some of the present top drivers, and acknowledge the brilliant engineering that goes into the cars.

Juncao ie the point at which the inner circuit joined the perimeter circuit but fell into disuse ( for the F1 cars at least ) after the GP returned to Interlagos in 1990. Can see why given the proximity of the wall and the road immediately behind it.

You and I are kindred spirits. I can't stop watching because I would feel that I was letting the side down, but I often fall asleep. I agree that the uniformity, nay generic , form of the racing today means nothing seems to stand out during a season. Having said that, I admire some of the present top drivers, and acknowledge the brilliant engineering that goes into the cars.

Because we are nostalgists, is this a form of selective memory?

There's no doubt Bernie has created an international phenomenon. A certain amount of snoring can also be heard in Western Australia in the wee small hours...

I know this doesn't fit Barry's criteria from his opening post as this run took place over two part-seasons, but, coming from an era in which cars were not as reliable as today's, I think it deserves honourable mention. Carlos Reutemann's Williams career got off to a poor start, with three mechanical failures in his first four races. However, he then went on to complete every lap of every race in the next 15 World Championship GPs, from Belgium 1980 to Belgium 1981. This was equivalent to a full season's races at that time.

If Kimi Raikkonen had not gone the wrong way up a one way street in Brazil yesterday, he probably wouldn't have been lapped. But he did and he was.

What a pity - it meant that rather than complete 100% of the total number of kilometers run in this 20 race season, he completed 99.93%. This was the only lap he lost in the whole season. Not bad, is it.

In 2008 Nick Heidfeld also finished in all the races but he was a total of 5 laps adrift of 100%.

I wonder if anyone else has a 100% finishing record in one season.

Michael Schumacher in 2002: Even made it on the podium in every race: One 3rd place, all other scores were first or second. Granted, that wasn't a 20 season race. But from memory, when adding the last races of 2001 and the first of 2003 to that 2002 record he had a string of 22 or so with 100% laps driven.

If you factor in the distance Kimi completed in the Porsche Challenge paddock, it probably almost equates to the 0.07 per cent of the season he missed. Had the gate at the top been open, as it was when he explored the same route in a Sauber back in 2001, he might even have escaped being lapped.

Afterwards, he said he'd make sure the gate was open in 2013, just in case.

I think he definitely covered more ground in a support paddock than any other F1 driver this season.

On the spirit of nostalgia, i truly believe that your brain runs out of space somewhere around age 30, hence all the races when we're young are so well remembered, where as it takes a lot to remember races these days.

You and I are kindred spirits. I can't stop watching because I would feel that I was letting the side down, but I often fall asleep. I agree that the uniformity, nay generic , form of the racing today means nothing seems to stand out during a season. Having said that, I admire some of the present top drivers, and acknowledge the brilliant engineering that goes into the cars.

Because we are nostalgists, is this a form of selective memory?

I'm another one whose enthusiasm for what F1 has become is somewhat muted, I also watch all the races, though my practice is to record all of them to DVD. I start watching the daytime ones about half an hour after the whole thing starts, then fast forward through most of the drivel and witter that fills the first hour. Then, if something exciting happens in the race, I can rewind and watch again, and after I've enjoyed something exceptional like Kimi's pass on Jenson during the recent US race, two of the very best drivers right at the very top of their game, I just continue to watch from where I left off, so my viewing ends some minutes later than those watching the whole thing live. Seeing everything as it happens doesn't bother me at all, for the unsocial hours races, I check the results on Autosport's site as soon as I can, I'm only interested in watching racing, sometimes good and sadly all too often not, so knowing the result before I sit down to watch, doesn't bother me in the slightest. To get back to the original subject of this thread, I've been hugely impressed by Kimi Räikkönnen's performances throughout 2012, surely one of the best comebacks ever, he was one of my favourites during the first part of his on-off career, and I've loved everything he's done this year, especially the comments from the cockpit. How I wish that some of the undisciplined midfield rabble would learn a thing or two from his example.

As I usually partake of a glass or two of vino during weekend lunchtimes, sometimes even a G & T beforehand, so I occasionally suffer from nicanary's problem and drop off for short periods during races, but recording the whole thing while at the same time watching it with a slight delay, means that this is no problem at all, and I don't miss a thing, "Cheers!"